The proliferation of mobile computing devices has fueled a rapid growth in the mobile application industry. A mobile application (“mobile app” or “app”) is a software application designed to execute on a smartphone, tablet computing device, desktop or laptop computing device, and/or other type of mobile computing device (e.g., a smart watch). Many mobile apps were originally intended for certain limited-productivity activities, including email, calendaring, contact management, and other information management activities. Now, over a half-million targeted mobile applications can be downloaded directly to a mobile device and used for a wide variety of tasks and entertainment.
A typical user may install dozens of mobile apps on her mobile device, resulting in a home screen view that can quickly become crowded with app icons. The availability of multitasking allows several apps to run simultaneously, but when an app is selected for use, the full app may load in the display forefront and the associated graphics may take up all or part of the displayed view. This functionality may make it inconvenient to easily access, view, or utilize other apps or functions of the mobile device.